Woodcutter
by Kasifya
Summary: AU - All Trowa had ever known was his small community, his forested home and work. But when slavers come, everything changes. When all you've ever wanted is to fit in, and failed, sometimes it's hard to realise that differences can be good.
1. Trowa 1

Disclaimer: Well, I don't own anything from Gundam Wing, but in this case the rest of the A Universe is mine, and I don't have to disclaim it at all...

A.N.: Well, we'll she how this story goes, won't we. I hope you peopleses like it, 'cause I'm trying something new here. I'm really bad at summaries too, so I'm hoping that someone will actually be interested in reading it. Oh well, we'll just say I have an inferiority complex with my story and leave it at that, shall we? So, on with it. Hope ya all like it, and constructive criticism is welcome.

**Woodcutter**

Kasi-kun.

Do you realize that the most inane things go through your mind right when there are other more important things to worry about? I'd always heard that to be true, but never quite believed to until the moment when I hauled myself back into consciousness from a cavern of darkness (please excuse the cliché, but that is what it seemed to me to be at the time) and the first though I had was, 'If Marcalle wet the bed again tonight, I'll kill him'. I groaned at the thought of moving an inch and finding myself in a spot where bed covers were rather damp with an extremely unpleasant liquid, forever again. That's what you get for being your father's least favorite!

"Don't move. Don't make any noise, maybe they won't notice your awake."

My brain thrashed with surprise, and my body started in amazement. I didn't know that voice, not at all. But that information got ignored in the rock slide of agony that crashed into me like falling timber at my movement. I choked, heaved, and howled into someone's hand. Whoever had muffled my scream had to be fast, desperate or both, but my continued motion caused more liquid fire to pour along my skin, intelligent though vanished with the world, and a furious hiss.

"What part of no noise donya understand, Timber-ape?"

I had to be setting some sort of record. Two returns to this world from oblivion, and both starting with stupid thoughts. This time it was 'I should have bitten him.' The term Timber-ape rang in my head. I hated that phrase. I really did. I kept myself still this time. No jerking, thought I have to say that no surprises helped the effort. But the pain came anyway, though this time it seeped in, slowly gaining strength, but I found that if I was careful, I could handle it, not that I had much choice, I can't heal myself. This time my mouth was already covered. With a cloth. Forever smart! Whoever it was that had covered my mouth, if they had used a hand, I would have bloodied it.

"No, master. He hasn't woken up."

The words were spoken right next to me. I was glad I didn't startle. That would have caused another repeat of before. A more distant, and deeper response, and then the boy's voice was right beside me.

"I'll take it off right now, master, but he's been hallucinating, sir, and he was bothering other travelers, sir. So..."

A growl cut him off. The cloth wasn't removed from my mouth, so bothering other travelers wasn't a good thing, 'master' had changed his mind. Well, I sure didn't have to worry about a little brother wetting the bed here. But what had happened? What had brought me here? Where was here?

I mean, last thing I remember is eating supper with my family, the normal loud scuffling whining mass of little brats all around. I had ached with the pleasant ache of a hard job well done. The needed stock pile for wood for the winter had been cut and stacked and the barn roof patched without one of us boys breaking any bones. At least so I had thought, maybe I had fallen off. That must be it, I hadn't actually gotten as far as supper, I was confusing another supper with today, and thinking something had happened when it didn't. I was just imagining the voice by my elbow, and really I was at home in the sick-bed Mama forever used when we got banged up. That was all.

"I know you can hear me." The boy's voice was soft, but it didn't really exist, I just had to get my eyes open to prove it. I would see Reela, or Grasyt, or Frelak at my elbow gloating that they would get to go with Papa hunting on the morrow. it was strange, opening my eyes was a monumental struggle, like lifting a full, unsectioned tree trunk off of a squirrel by yourself. I thought it was impossible forever. Then a tiny quiver of light showed through my eyelashes, and I redoubled my efforts, and ended staring straight into a pair of violet eyes.

I jerked in surprise, and the gag muffled my whimper, and my hair soaked away the few tears of pain that escaped, the brats would laugh if they had seen that. But how could I think that I was at home? Mama never would gag one of us kids to keep us quiet. Not even me. Forever she wouldn't.

"I can't believe you're even alive, Timber-ape." I frowned slightly not a full scowl since moving my face that much hurt, marking in my head to beat him up but good once I was back on my feet. "I've always heard that you tree-boys're tough, but I never thought that you'd be this tough. Look, when you get better, I say we should make a run for it. I'd like you at my back any day!"

Run for it? At his back? My frown of anger turned to confusion. Where was I? This grasslander could have been speaking a foreign language for all I could figure out what he was talking about. I couldn't be dreaming this, I'd never heard a grasslander talk before. Violet-Eyes was yammering again. He talked as much as my sisters, well not really, but it just seemed that way cause he never waited for me to respond. Though, I would have thought him touched in the head if he did wait for me to answer, since I was tied up.

It was a testament to how leaf-brained I was then that it had taken me that long to wonder what my actual wounds were. I attempted to move my head to see, but I seemed heavier than a mountain, and wouldn't budge. I rolled my eyes downward to try to see, but all that came into view was my nose, and more of my brown bangs. Of course I'm too skinny to see anything else without tilting my head down. Violet-Eyes, the grasslander Dirt-bunny, seemed to realize what I was trying to do, and he tapped my nose to focus me back on him. He was still talking, and I realized that he might be telling me about my condition. Maybe he had already.

"...the whole stack came down on you. All the other brats got way into the forest, up the trees, they're probably still running but you and the woman took out about 3 before you went down. I didn't know trees could be that big, and I sure didn't think that your old man would drop one on you at the same time that he dropped it on the slavers..."

He kept talking, but my whole being focused on that one word. Slavers. Slavers. Forever! It had to be slavers didn't it? I'd heard the stories going around, how they had come up into the mountains looking for children to snatch, but Mama had said it was all lies, and Papa had just laughed and crowed to the evening shadows that he'd kill any who'd try and snatch his strapping strong boys. Mama had glanced at me, all whipcord muscle and bone, nothing else, and glanced away fast. I was oldest, but I wasn't worth the extra time of day. Never mind. Never mind I could out hunt, fight and work any two of the others. Slavers. Papa had dropped our name tree. Forever! He'd dropped it on me. All the kids were safe. All but me. Mama would be a little sorry, but Papa wouldn't care, the neighbors would stop sending speculative glances at our family now. The sport, the throw back, the one who looked nothing like the others was gone. No more wondering if Mama had been unfaithful right off the beginning.

"Hello?"

I focused on those eyes again.

"I promise you, everyone but you got away. Even the woman, though she's the one that moved the tree from you. I've never seen anyone so upset. Or amazingly strong. Never. But what do they say about Mothers and their cubs? She was screaming that trees can't hurt you, but there you were half crushed, and the master wanted to bring you along just in case you lived, he needed something to show for the raid."

The cloth was removed from my mouth. I blinked slowly.

"Timber-ape?"

"She got away?" My voice grated. Normally it would be higher than this Dirt-bunny's but not right now, it sounded like I hadn't had water in weeks. She had saved me. Instead of running with the girls like she should have, after all the doubt I'd had in her, she had risked everything for me. What was that about trees not hurting me? That was non-sense.

"Ya. At the last second before we got there, she jumped for the shadows. Night fell right then, and master wouldn't risk us in the gloom. You got a real name? I can't keep calling ya Timber-ape, sha?" I just looked at those eyes, I'd never seen eyes like that. Most were brown that I'd seen, though when I looked into the big copper platter of Mama's it seemed to have lighter eyes. Maybe one day I would find a pond when no one else was around and see what the water's reflection said.

"I didn't want to help him. Sha, I didn't. I'm Duo. Tell me your name?"

"Maybe I don't remember it. Just like I don't..." I wasn't sure I wanted to say that I didn't remember anything past finishing supper and, and had we gone out to do the last chores? Why would be all be outside at once? The girls should have been getting the house tidied, while we did the chore, forever it was like that.

"Don't what? Maybe the tree shook your brain loose. Sha, but the master would be mad if it did. No good returns at all, and the broken one he's got be touched in the head?" Dirt-bunny, he must be a slave, laughed at that, it was a kind of empty laugh, like he was hoping desperately it wasn't true.

"Hurts." I commented, annoyed. Did he expect me to talk as much as he did? everything hurt. Even my jaw.

"No! Sha, but I think you are touched in the head. You've got broken ribs, oh, what haven't you got broken? Ribs, both arms at least once, right leg, left ankle, your head."

I broke in "My head isn't broken! Forever, do you never be silent?"

The eyes vanished from my field of vision.

I didn't want to him to go. I was sorry I had been so rude, he had told me what had happened. "Trowa."

The eyes were back, wider, amazed, my brain supplied after a breath of time. "You're Trowa? Trowa Timber-ape?" He sniggered.

I held on to my temper carefully, I'd flatten him when I could stand up. "Duo Dirt-bunny" My voice still creaked horribly and I was contemplating the stupidity of our name calling when suddenly water flowed in through my open lips and I swallowed, choked, coughed and vanished into a darkness that raged with pain from my middle.


	2. Trowa 2

Disclaimer: Again, much as I wish on stars, Gundam wing is not mine. I can't even draw them properly, so there!

Thanks everybody for the reviews, I wasn't really expecting any, but we all hope, right? :-)

Koriaena - You are right, Duo didn't have a choice about whether he was gonna help or not, but Trowa didn't know that, and for all he knew Duo might have wanted to help to gain browny points... oh well. Maybe Duo was just feeling terrible about having helped to kidnap someone, and wanted to make sure that it was clear that he didn't want to do it...

Hope you guys like this chapter too.

**Woodcutter**

Kasi-kun

_Chapter 2._

When I came back to myself I was jolting slightly, and I am rather ashamed to say I whimpered, gasping, trying not to yell, I knew that drawing enough breath to scream would simply make matters worse. It took me only a few more minutes to realize I was lying in a wagon with Duo, the grasslander, walking, no, trudging beside me on the other side of the wagon wall. He looked miserable, and his purple eyes, which I remembered sparking at me so brightly were downcast, and empty. Over the noise of the cart, and the other travelers who I couldn't see but could hear very well, the other boy must not have heard me when I woke up. I tried and failed to move may hand, I might not be good at it, but everyone wants to add some comfort if they see another human being upset. He must have seen my hand twitching, though Forever knows it was little enough of a motion, but his eyes turned to me and his face changed. I was almost unsure I'd seen him unhappy.

"Heyla! Well awake are we? Think you can drink without choking this time?"

I was indignant. If I hadn't had the water poured down my throat when I wasn't expecting it I wouldn't have reacted that way. "What's wrong?" I croaked.

"Wrong? It's sunny, there aren't any bugs, and the breeze is good. How could anything be wrong?" He grinned at me, but I just looked at him, he might be right about me being a timber-ape, but I wasn't stupid, though maybe it had just been my pre-waking hallucination. I was just beginning to second guess myself when he sighed. "Look. We're coming to an outpost soon. We should reach it in the hour. Master is gonna have you Healed, but he isn't gonna spend the extra coin to make it a proper one, it's gonna be fast. Not many survive that kind of Healing. I hope you're strong, I..." He trailed off. He must have been looking after me when I was out of it. I wondered exactly how long I had been down for. I couldn't even see a hint of my mountains anywhere at the edge of my vision. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen them when I woke up the first time.

Suddenly the sky seemed too big, too empty, and I felt mindless terror swirl in my belly. I clamped my eyes onto Duo and tried to ignore the huge open space about me. "What else?"

"What else?!? I just told you you're likely to die and you ask what else?" His voice rose, cutting through the other voices on the road.

Shrill and whiny at the same time a girl's voice piped, "Mother! That Thing interrupted me again! He should be punished! Have him beaten!" A softer voice tried to soothe the girl, and Duo hunched his shoulders slightly as if expecting them to actually do as the brat asked. It was that bit of a lean forward that let me see his back, and I realized that his fear wasn't without merit. Across his ragged, I suppose it used to be white, shirt where red lines torn into the fabric. I wondered if this happy boy had actually deserved any of the blows and how anyone could do this to him, to anyone else. It wasn't right. Forever it wasn't! It took several more minutes for my new friend to relax and realize that he wasn't going to be beaten this time, and when he finally glanced at me again, I resumed the conversation that had started this in the first place. "I'm not ignoring that I can't die, I'm just wondering what else will go wrong. You know that trouble comes in threes right?" My voice still sounded like a tree breaking, and Duo, amazingly, didn't answer until he had gotten quite a bit of water into me.

"Well, let's see. Trouble comes in threes you say? For you that would be having your Da drop a tree on you, becoming a slave and maybe gonna die soon."

"Everybody dies." I wanted to try and take the brighter look on things, I still hadn't realized the full impact of this huge change in my life, and I'm not sure I wanted to.

"Not like this." He was so encouraging today, wasn't he? All sunshine and light.

"So what are your three problems? You know mine." It is amazing how much I was talking. I wanted this boy to talk, it seemed like he should be blathering on, not watching over his shoulder to make sure that someone wasn't standing there waiting to kick him. Violet-eyes helped me drink some more water, and it was amazing how much better I felt after only those two drinks. Wonderful. Now if I could just find out what was wrong with him I'd be as happy as I could be. Maybe I had just imagined the whole depressed look. Or maybe if I just kept watching him he would crack and tell me. I had never been much good at convincing people of things. So I waited. And waited. And... Forever! I had no idea that you could say so much and yet not give any information. Duo had not stopped talking since he had last given me a sip of water. What would happen if he hadn't told me what was upsetting him before we got to where I was gonna be Healed. I considered that, and then wondered if he had anyone to talk to before like he was talking to me now. Poor kid. Mind you, he couldn't be much younger than me. Maybe it was how small he was that made him seem so young. Or maybe it was his grin.

"I'm 15, how about you?" I could have waited all day for a break in his monologue, so I simply made my own break in what he was saying.

He looked at me funny but finally said, "I must be something like that. I'm not sure though. People don't keep track of street brats' ages. Sha." The last was a bit of a snort, and a bit of a laugh, but incredibly sad, hopeless.

Ahh, that explained his clothes. Probably snitched from some rich Lord's clothes line while they had been hung out to dry. Forever smart, at least he was, I had to open my big mouth and comment, "So that's your first trouble. What are the other two?"

He glared at me, then kinda laughed and lightened up a bit, "I think that for me trouble is never ending. That trouble was matched with it's other two a long time ago."

"Sorry." I mumbled, and I wondered why I cared so much. Every time I had asked questions on the mountain the other kids would ignore me, laugh at me, or asked one back, the one they forever asked, 'Who's your papa? The one you got your weird eyes from, or your strange hair? Does your mama still know him?' Those had led to fights and to Papa finally forbidding me from going to town anymore. I hated them, those kids, but sometimes I had wished I could just have a normal conversation with one of them. Now Duo was actually talking to me, or at me as the case may be, and I had to go pry into what he obviously didn't want to discuss.

"I'm just worried about the sale. I mean, I've seen them back in my city and they weren't pretty. I always managed to keep out of the way of slavers, but this time I was careless and I got caught. I just... oh, I don't know. I kinda wish... I mean if I have to get sold, I wish it could be back in the cities I know, and could escape in. Over here, I don't know the run of things and I could get into as much trouble as good."

This was news to me. Duo came from the other side of the mountains? Everyone said that they were savages over there. Powerful and terrible, but he didn't look any different from anyone else I knew, accept for the violet eyes of course. Oh, and the hair. I haven't mentioned it yet, but it should have been the first thing to be commented on next to his eyes. Actually, I haven't told what he looks like other than his eyes have I? Well, here we go then. He has bright lavender/violet eyes. Second, he had this rope of hair that was more beautiful than most of the hair that I've seen girls have. It was the kind of brown that trees have when they're damp, except now in the sunlight it was shining with highlights of gold and a little bit of red. It reached half way down his thighs even though it was tightly braided. I'm betting it would reach his knees if he ever let it out of its plait. He was slender to the point of being skinny. I admit I have a bit of a skewed vision on that, but since he was even thinner that me, he had to be _really_ thin. And finally he was short for a human. Probably only a bit over the 5 foot mark. Maybe 5'2" or so? Shorter than me anyway. When I first met him he wore that raggy, baggy, too big shirt that I already told you was crisscrossed with lash marks, and a pair of ratty old canvas pants. The kind that sailors wear in the tales Mama used to tell. His hair was tied with a piece of twine. By his own words, I was wrong, too. He wasn't a grasslander. That was a term used for people on this side of the mountain. I won't repeat the words used for the people on the other side of the mountain, I mean after all, there is a chance, really tiny maybe, but still a chance that a lady or a child might read this. Besides, I'm sure that you've all heard the terms before yourself. Even if you are a lady or a child.

"I thought that you would know more than me, you know, about how to survive here, so I was actually starting to hope we had a chance, until the master said he was gonna pay for a fast healing for you." Oh, right. We were talking about why he was sad.

"Will the selling come soon?" I asked. Again I wondered how long I had been out of it, and how far it would be if I made a run for home.

"Ya, they said we'd get to the market day after tomorrow. Sha! I'll kill myself first."

"Don't! If I do get better, we'll run away together. Somehow. Tomorrow night, after I'm Healed, but before the sale. We can run to the mountains and be safe."

Duo laughed quietly then, and it sounded like a steel trap closing. "That's a long run. Sha, you slept for most of it, but we left the mountains just over two weeks ago. There's no way we could get there fast enough to be safe. Not if you know nothing more that I do about 'grasslander' was it? About grasslander customs."

"Well then, somehow, some time, I vow that we will be free again." Not, I had to admit to myself, that I'd had such a bad time of it yet. Actually, I could probably be considered pampered, I hadn't even seen my captor/master's face yet. Tomorrow would tell, if I survived today. Just then the wagon hit the world's largest pothole, and my body decided it was tired and had dealt with enough pain, and didn't want to feel any more and blackness swept up and embraced me.

I'm not sure you could call it waking. I vaguely heard Duo yelling something but the darkness had too much of a hold on me and I couldn't comprehend his words. Then it happened. I don't even know how to describe it. Molten lava perhaps? Maybe the Dragon Flame, the kind talked about in the stories Mama used to tell us? Starving, suffocating, freezing and crying all in an instant. I really should ask Quatre how to describe it. He's much better with words than me, but I get ahead of myself. All I knew was that I was filled with the most horrible pain I could even imagine and beyond all limits of the human body, and beyond again, forever beyond. I'm not sure that I could have even screamed if I had been awake to do so.

The one coherent thought I did have just before I sank into an even deeper darkness was, 'forever, but Duo was so right. If this is Healing, no wonder people die of it.' I wished I could die, just to get away from that rending pain.

And then all was dark, and I was floating in a void of nothing.


	3. Trowa 3

Disclaimer: As per usual, I do not own Gundam Wing, but I own the AU, 'cause I have yet to find anyone who uses this one :)  
  
A. N. : I would like to explain some thing, to those of you that actually will read this. I had and have every intention of updating this story at least once a week. However the last four weeks that idea has been foiled. First by the ending of my co-op and me moving from the capital of our country back home. I got home just in time to have my wisdom teeth removed, needless to say I didn't write those weeks. The next problem was I was just ready to go back at it and I headed north to my gram's house to visit her for a week with my mom and she just got a CD player last year, never mind a computer. Finally, I got home, and I was all ready to work on updating and I couldn't get to any of my files. So, I have just now gotten to them, but I have to say because of the delays, etc. this is a much shorter chapter than I had planned originally. What I'm posting now is what I had typed before I left my co-op job. I guess the short version of this story is I'm sorry, and I didn't want to make this wait any longer. I hope you all enjoy it. Such as it is...

Oh, and btw, hughug Thanks for the reviews. **Nikkler**, Trowa doesn't know Quatre _yet_, but as he writes the story, and is searching for words he just mentions that Quatre has a better vocab. and glomp you noticed the forever think... is it annoying? I hope not. But I wanted him to have a different exclaimation than we do, instead of something like 'like', or whatever, or a Canadian 'eh'. :) See ya next time!!!! Thanks everybody!  
  
**Woodcutter.**

Kasi-kun.  
  
_Chapter 3_  
  
In Mama's stories I would have bounded to my feet exuberantly, rosy faced, filled with vim and vigour. I wish I could get my hands on whoever wrote those stories, 'cause I would kill them so completely that there would be no help for it but to bury them 12 feet under. Actually I can understand why they did write quick recoveries into ballads and such, it's a bit embarrassing to say that my muscles were stiff, my brain fuzzy and none of me was close to doing anything at a normal pace let alone with vim or vigour. Forever, but I promised to be honest in this tale, so I will be! Even if it means telling what a wimp I can be.  
  
This time when I woke up I brought my score for thinking stupid things up to three for, one against, or is that all for inane thoughts? Not good, not good at all, maybe I should stop keeping count. This time I wondered why my ribs were shaking. None of the rest of me was, just the section of skin just above my hip, beside my stomach. Obviously I really need to work on my intelligence because it took me many moments of sluggish thinking before I realised that someone was leaning against me and it was him/her that was shaking, not me. So I then assumed it must be cold out, until my brain worked its way up to the realisation that I could see the red of blazing sunlight through my eyelids, and that even lying still I was dripping sweat. I tried to open my mouth, to ask what was going on, but it was glued shut. I was so thirsty, I'm not sure I had ever been that thirsty in my whole life before! I have afterwards, but I'll get to that.  
  
I must have groaned because a moment later water was pouring over my mouth, someone pried my jaws apart, and blessed water was spilling in through my parched lips. I swallowed some, spit out more, and opened my eyes to once again look into the face of Duo. This was getting to be as much of a habit as waking up with inane thoughts. Then my brain registered another thing. It was him that was shivering. "What's wrong?"  
  
I got the water flask in the face, and snatched it out of his hand before he could hit me again. "What's wrong?" He was practically screaming, in the heat of the moment not seeming to care that he was making that much noise. "Sha! You're stupid! I'm sitting here, in a slave pen, waiting to get sold to some Grasslander who'll make my life miserable while leaning against what I'm thinking is gonna be a corpse soon and you ask 'What's wrong?'" He crawled as far away from me as he could manage with the manacles that locked our legs to the same chain, and while he'd deny it of course, he was pouting.  
  
I guess he wasn't the only one who forgot himself in the heat of the moment, because I realised that I was up, sitting on my heels and glaring at him. "I'm not stupid! Forever, what else was I supposed to say?" I raised the pitch of my voice so I sounded like one of my little brothers when he whined. "I know it's roasting hot out here, and I'm a bit tied up at the moment, but would you like me to find you a blanket? After all, you're shaking, are you a bit cold?" Even as I snapped my head away from him, going as far as to cross my arms over my chest to show I was ignoring him, it hit me just how juvenile I was acting. Maybe it was a side affect of Fast Healing, maybe I had just made a wonderful discovery that would be documented in the Plainland's Library, and I would go down in the nation's chronicles as the first mountain man to make a discovery worthwhile enough to them that they were willing to write it down.  
  
A voice boomed for silence, and Duo grabbed my arm, maybe he was trying to pull me to the ground so we wouldn't be noticed, but whatever he was trying to do failed miserably to budge me and I felt the stinging pain of a whip striking my back. Well, there is a first time for everything isn't there? My friend, who had ended up half hanging when his snatch at me had failed to even move me, looked shocked out of his mind (maybe at my strength?) as I slowly turned my head and looked at my would-be tormentor. I don't know who was more surprised at that moment, him or me, but the next thing I knew was he was ambling away at what looked to be a jog, all the while attempting not the appear unnerved. After a breath of time I lowered myself to the hard packed dirt, not really feeling completely steady, after all I had just woken up.  
  
"No wonder everyone said that master was a fool to have captured a mountain boy. Sha, but I wish I could do that, I mean glare like that. You scared the wits out of him."  
  
"He has wits?" I smirked at the boy sitting beside me, reaching over my shoulder in an attempt to rub my newly aquired welt and he grinned back, I guess life really is too short to hold anger.  
  
"How'd you do that glowing thing with your eyes?"  
  
I stared at him in blank incomprehension and his smile faded to a puzzled face that must have matched mine. Glowing thing? What glowing thing? That sort of thing happened in stories and in the lands beyond the mountains, not from my community, or from these grasslands either. Not knowing what to say I finally raised my eyes to look around. I was sickened by the sight of hundreds of children chained together in groups of fifty or so. Rough plank fences formed the pen that hemmed us all in, and flies buzzed frantically over everything. The sun burned down on our unprotected heads mercilessly and the smell of human sweat and waste was overpowering. This had to be the culmination of all things evil in our world. I mean it is one thing to know and be warned by your parents that it is legal to sell humans under twenty-five as slaves, likewise you could be jailed for owning or buying someone who is over that age. Just like it is a simple thing to say that you understand when they tell you that if you are held as a slave for two weeks and your parents have not yet been able to find you or your snatchers by that time then they are legally unable to prosecute the slavers, or to take you back, accept by buying you. Forever, but it is an entirely different thing to have it happen to you, or to see the pathetic little urchins huddled against each other hopelessly for comfort. I wanted to have my axe in my hands. I wanted to see some heads roll, until I realized that I was younger than some of the girls and boys that I was wishing I was able to protect. Rage shook me, but Duo's hand on my shoulder brought me back to myself.  
  
"You're doing it again, and it's scaring the babies."

tbc.


	4. Trowa 4

Disclaimer: As per usual, I do not own Gundam Wing, but I own the AU, I made it, and I would prefer if no one else attempts to use it :) :) Not that they would want to :)  
  
A.N.: Well, sure as my promise, here is the next installment of my story. I would say that yes, the other pilots will be in the story, and that y'all'll just have to be patient until I get to them. But they are coming. :D And one other thing, I'm changing their heights just a little bit. Trowa is that tallest still, but Heero and Wufei come in second, then Duo, and finally Quatre. Hopefully that doesn't bother anyone.  
  
**Woodcutter.  
**  
Kasi-kun.  
  
_Chapter 4 - Trowa._  
  
However I did the 'glowy-thing' as Duo so eloquently called it, it stopped. He took it upon himself to inform me at randomly spaced intervals that it hadn't come back either. Maybe the ability had something to do with me being angry after the whip incident, and furiously helpless about the hopeless situation so many children found themselves in here in this pit of dread. Then again, maybe not, whatever it was I was just glad it was gone. I was a good, strong, honest mountain boy, not one of the Over-the-Mountain not-quite-human creatures that are always in stories. I didn't wanted to be in stories, I didn't want to be anything but out of here and back in my mountains.  
  
Be that as it may, that day passed more slowly than a slug in frozen molasses. I stretched my newly healed limbs and worked the kinks out of unused muscles as best I could tied at both feet as I was. I have to say, for all the pain, and the terrible risk to it, Fast Healing did do just as good a job in the end as the normal slower version.  
  
During that endless afternoon I watched as groups of chained kids were taken out of the pen, the gangs were always headed in the same direction. Duo seemed determined to the point of stupidity not to watch where they were headed, but when I strained my ears, and I was pretty sure that over the rattle of chains, crying and basic sounds of misery all around me, I did hear the sound of a crier. Just like the merchants that would visit my village and shout out their sale items. So that was what it would be like? Forever, forced to stand before a crowd of people like a piece of cloth or bite of food to be ogled at and dissected with the eyes? It made me sick. No wonder Duo didn't want to think about it.  
  
The night passed without incident and the next day dawned just as miserably hot as the previous one had been. I had tried everything I knew to get those chains off while listening to long muttered dialogues by Duo directed at whoever was supposed to have taken care if the chains. He claimed that if that person had done their job he could have gotten us out easily, but instead our manacles were rusted shut and nothing within reach of us was strong enough to withstand the pressure needed to break the coating and get at the locking mechanism inside. I didn't know something could rust shut like that over night. Forever, but that's just my luck right now.  
  
My newly healed body let me know just after dawn that day that it hadn't been fed properly in weeks, and it didn't let up it's complaints for hours. I was actually glad for the frustration of trying to open those locks, because at least they hauled my attention away from the gnawing knot of fury that was my belly, at least it did for a little while.  
  
The sun had passed its zenith when the guards flung some food into the pen followed by buckets of grungy water. I use the term guard very loosely since all they really do is slouch around the perimeter and look tough and smell worse, they have opportunity to bathe, you would think they would take mercy on us and use it. Now, as to the way they pass out food; I have to comment on the utter cruelty of this method of feeding. Children or adult, in this situation I have found that it doesn't really matter, everyone acts just the same. The people on the outer edge of the pen hoarded all of lunch for themselves. If those blasted chains had opened I think I would have been inclined to waste my chance for freedom just to give some of the babies a bit of the water. Forever, but when I saw little ones of no more than five going with out water for another day, and who know how may days they had missed already, I was ready and willing to kill something. Anything.  
  
"Sha! You selfish worm-gutted slim! Pass that along to the kiddies!" Obviously Duo agreed with me and as he glared around at the people about three feet from us who were gulping down all the water in one bucket, I nearly lost it. If my eyes had looked anything like his did right now, no wonder that guard scuttled away from me like he did. Don't get me wrong. His eyes didn't change color or anything, the pupils were still there, and the white part, but the iris, the ring around the dark spot that is in the center of your eye, it shone with the most vibrant version of his eye color that you can possibly imagine. The lunged forward as best he could, and for someone that short, someone who just the day before couldn't even budge me, wow! Reeve, the guy chained on the other side of Duo, and I found ourselves being dragged across the dirt at the greedy bastards. Said bastards thrust the water bucket on to someone else and coward away from my demonic friend, huddling at the farthest reach of their chains from Duo.  
  
A moment later Duo got distracted, and in that second the light in his eyes vanished, and his eyes were just the normal deep violet shade, or the shade that is as normal as purple eyes can get. What distracted Brown Braid was the last of the 'guards' throwing his armful of moldy bread over the fence. Than wouldn't be such a big deal accept that the bread was thrown up and over the fence, but it never hit the ground, and no, it wasn't that people snatched them out of the air before they could land. Forever, but it was creepy. They floated midair. Just hung there, and didn't come down, then the hunks of bread seemed to take a mind of their own and gently drifted over to the uplifted hands of wonder filled little ones. If it hadn't all been so bazarre, I would have cheered. Others of the greedy ones at the fence saw what happened and unnerved, decided to be safe and passed a fair share of the food and water on down the line, forever, but Duo and I even got a bit.  
  
One thing that has an important effect on what happened next is something that I never found out until much later. This auction that I was being sold at was a special one. For the first time in decades a pair of the Streeta, more commonly known in tales and legends as the Shadows, had come out from the Deep Wilds beyond the mountains to see what kind of children where being bred in these parts and to see if any were worth anything. Or in other words, to see if any of us were worth buying and training. Okay, having explained that, on with the story.  
  
Running around the corner of a building, coming from the direction that the kids were all taken to get auctioned came a girl and a boy. The girl was pretty in a stubborn kind of way with large hazel eyes, but a chin that was a bit too square for most people's tastes, she looked to be about nineteen or twenty. The boy was a rather large specimen, muscular and rather brutal looking and bore a remarkable resemblance to the girl, if appearing a year or two younger than her. He was only a stride behind her when they reached the fence. The 'masters' had been about ten strides behind them when they rounded the corner into my view and in those few steps they lost a remarkable amount of ground to the leading couple. I'd never seen anyone run that fast, or jump a fence so easily. Neither of them even broke stride.  
  
Duo, my friend who came from over the mountains, must have noticed something about them, because he was the first one of any of us to react to them. He flung himself backwards, wrenching my and Reeve's legs terribly, an expression of desperate unease and growing fear twisted his features. That swift motion must have been what caught the boy's eye, because he broke off following his sister and picked his way over to us. Catching Duo by the throat he hauled him into the air, and I found myself wrenched around, facing away from the braided boy, with my leg pulled upward by the manacle that attached me to my friend. "Long way from home street brat."  
  
In that position, I was unable to see what was happening to my friend, but I witnessed the girl pick another boy off the ground in a similar fashion to Duo's treatment. This boy, if it was possible, was even smaller than Duo, and yet seemed to still be our age. He was slight, blonde and looked utterly terrified, not that I blame him, I would have been just as scared in the same situation.  
  
"You made something happen. What?" The girl's voice could have been a siren call, it was sweet and completely deadly. She shook him, and his chain mates with him. "Answer me!"  
  
"They were starving, the little ones. I had to! I had to." The blonde's voice cracked and his fear was evident to all, tremors of fear racked his body, but his fingers tore at the hand that held him by the throat.  
  
"I see. So you made them food?" Her hand gripped tighter, but I struggled to twist myself over, I needed to see what was happening to Duo! I could hear nothing from him.  
  
"N-no! Just passed them some! By my life! Naught more!"  
  
"You know the penalty for such unnatural acts, don't you, honey?" His eyes, which he had closed when she squeezed harder, snapped open, and huge turquoise eyes stared at her in horror.  
  
"How did you..."  
  
"I know everything, honey-child, and do not forget it, but I'm willing to do something for you. I will teach you to use that power of yours. How would that be? So you could help those babies escape, not just give them a bit of food now and then. I can make you one of the most powerful fighters in the known world. Sound good?" Obviously Blondie agreed with me, it sounded way too good to be true. The masters arrived at the fence, and stopped, too unnerved to do anything to stop the pair.  
  
"What be in it for you? I may be helpless, miss, but I am not stupid."  
  
Then Duo's tormentor spoke for the first time. "It's simple really. You just have to win a game. We train you, you play, you win, we all get rich, and you get your freedom. How about you street-brat. In? You have the potential physically, and for all your fear, you seem to have the mental potential too. I'm Brac-Stana. I will be your master."  
  
"How good are the odds of winning?" Brac-Stana and his sister exchanged looks.  
  
"What are the chances? Sha! I'm not stupid either!" I was jerked, my leg twisted farther upwards as Duo struck at his would be master, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh followed, then Duo was dropped limp to the ground, and I was able to turn about to see a bruise already swelling on his temple. Brac-Stana reached for the chain that connected the two of us, and faster than thought snapped it in half, repeating it just as quickly in the manacle that connected Reese to Duo.  
  
"The odds?" The boy, no, the man laughed as he bent and picked my friend up, and slung him over his shoulder. "They aren't too good. See, not too may have actually won this game. Oh, wait. _No one_ has. Ever."  
  
"I'm Pride, honey, and I'll be your master, and you... you will be a legend. You'll be the first." Blondie glanced at the unmoving Duo and didn't argue as Pride bent to break his chains. Then auction masters seemed to realize that they were loosing two seemingly valuable slaves for no profit and hurried after the retreating backs of the pair. Just that fast I was left friendless, with an auction to look forward to. I didn't want to know what awaited me to fill out this trio of troubles. I really didn't. Maybe good luck will shine on me, and this was just last of a set of three troubles. Who knew, but I sure didn't hope for it. Blondie stared at me sadly as Pride carried him away. Forever but I wanted to do something. Anything. In a moment of inspiration I mouthed _'I'm Trowa!'_ and I watched as he mouthed back _'I am Quatre.'_  
  
_tbc.  
_  
**Nikkler**: eehee! you'll get to find out eventually why they glow! Do you think that this update was fast enough?? :) :D  
  
**Taylor Mercury**: Thank you thank you thank you! I really appreciated that you took time to tell me what you like about this. If you see something I should change, let me know, kay? I'll get back to the mother angle later, as well as Trowa development in general! I hope you like this chapter!!!  
  
**koriaena**: You wondered what Duo was yelling about at the end of chap 2, I'm not sure Trowa ever find out.  
  
**bluepixie13**: falls on knees, I'm sooooo sorry about the delay in updating last time! and after you actually took the time to request me updating sooner, and I take way longer... -sigh-  
  
**lax4fun23**: I'm glad you like it. Let me know if you have any think you don't like about the story, won't you? 


	5. Trowa 5

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Gundam Wing, never will, not a chance, much as I would like to. :)

New AN: I really hated the way this chapter turned out, so I'm gonna take another swing at it. I'm hoping that you'll all forgive me for the poor (pathetic) quality of the original chapter 5! Thank you. I'm sorry about this not being a new chapter, but I really didn't like the way that one turned out.

Taylor Mercury – I really hope that you don't mind the change, I'm sorry, but I didn't like the way everything turn out so short and choppy. I want the angst to stay, but I didn't like the confusion, and general lack of time that went into it.

Koriaena – thank you for your review, again, I hope you don't minds me re-writing this...

Joel! - hands you more fake patience you're going to need lots of it, since I know how bad you are for patience! grin

**Woodcutter**

Kasi-kun

_Chapter 5 - Trowa_

Sometimes, when I was younger I would wonder what drives a person, what keeps them going. I mean, all the great heroes in the past, all of them beat terrible odds, and did wonderful things when everyone else would have died, failed or given up. Well, some say it has a lot to do with sheer dumb luck, and a viselike grip on life. Others say it is all in the hero's stubbornness, and still more people say it is neither of those, but it is in fact a terror of the unknown, and therefore an unwillingness to leave this life. Almost everyone says it has to do with a 'will to live', something to live for.

I'm not entirely sure I agree. I think that it's more a matter of when they were at their weakest they were unable to die. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm a hero, but some people think that I am, so I'm trying to explain it. Those first days after Duo was taken, had I been given any choice in the matter, I would have chosen death. I don't agree with it now, and I'm not proud of it, but that is the truth. Those pens were misery. Pure and unaltered misery. The crust of bread and gulp of water I got just before Duo was taken away was my last in that place. Heat, stench, and crying were constant. They were what told me this couldn't possibly be just a terrible dream that I would wake from soon. I could never have imagined the heat of the sun on my unprotected head, or the high pitched wails of terrified children, lonely and starving, nor had I ever in my years smelled anything like that place. Until you live it, experience it, there is no way that you can dream it so vividly.

I hadn't realized how much Duo had helped me, focused me, and cheered me, until he was gone. Even Reese was dragged away; his gang was led out of the enclosure only hours after Duo was taken. I just lay there, in a dazed stupor and longed for death. Or at least the ending of all feeling. If I had been given any say in the matter I wouldn't be writing this story now, I wouldn't be around to pen it. But, as Duo would say, enough with the doom and gloom thoughts, on with the events.

After four days of lying limp and brainless in the dust and filth of the slave enclosure, strange as it seems, I gathered woke to an over-cast sky, and an interest in my surroundings. Maybe I had realized that this was getting me nowhere, or maybe it was just the lack of early morning sunrays beginning to bake me all over again, but whatever the cause I woke to actually look at the other kids who were still chained to me, and was coherent enough to wonder if any of them would be up to helping us all escape.

I took a quick check of myself, hungry, thirsty, a bit hot in the early morning humidity, but other than that, I was awake, alert and read for the world, now if I could just get out of that place. And alive at that. That was the key to it all! Alive.

A count of my chain mates told me that there were three girls and six boys, all but one about my age, that were still attached to me. If my ciphering skills had not totally deserted me, that made ten of us. A rawboned trio were fastened next to me. Please remember that since Duo's master broke him free of the chains that fastened him to me, and Reese was taken away to be sold, that meant that I was the first in line, or last depending on how you looked at it. Now, the rawboned ones were a girl and two boys, all of them about my size (brawnier, but the same height) and age, with the brown hair/eyes/skin combination that was common to that part of the world. Just beyond them was the only one that was a bit older than me. He had to be at least twenty years old and was obviously, even though we were all sitting down, about a head taller than me, if not more. He was also very thin. I know I'm considered tall and rather exceptionally lean, but this boy had to be thinner than me. Forever, but that's saying a lot. He also had striking long blonde hair and ice blue eyes that spoke of the cities beyond my mountains.

"Hey!" I hunched forward, looking at the four I've just described, "Hey, there!"

I got no response from the boy next to me, or the other rawboned kid, maybe his brother?, but the girl and Ash-blonde looked at me with a vague kind of interest in their eyes.

"Wa kwna defda?"

I was floored, I'd never thought that there would be people who spoke different words than me. "Can you talk like this?" I asked hopefully. The girl, who had spoken glanced at Ash-blonde and he shrugged.

"He does." The youth pointed to himself when he spoke, forever, but this was just great. How was this going to work? Oh well, it was sure worth a try.

So I leaned back, staring at the sky, eyes glazed, as if bored, and murmured, "Do you want to leave? To go?" I didn't want to use the word escape, it would bring the goons down on our collective head so fast it would take your breath away.

"Leave?" The blonde flopped back down to the ground, looking spiritless, miserable, and basically listless. The guards wandered by, not sparing us a glance. "He would like this." I'm sure that the ground was very glad to learn this, and I could barely catch the words he spoke, but I did catch them. Forever, listen to me whine, I should have been glad that Ash-blonde wasn't shouting my question to the world because he didn't understand it, not whimptering when he didn't speak clearly enough. "But, He wonders how to leave." He shifted so that the chains about his legs rattled suggestively.

"We can figure it out. I'm Trowa."

"Huh. He thinks this is a good thought, but impossible, he's Zechs." I knew that I was going to get tired of my new friend calling himself 'he' all the time. But then, maybe my saying 'forever', would bother him. It is almost guaranteed that if something bothers you about another person, than something about you drives them insane, too.

That aside, I was stuck, just like when Duo was still here. I couldn't get out of those chains. Forever, but I wanted to leave, to go home, desperately. If I did get home, I would never long for an adventure again in my life.

Before I could drown myself in self pity, the boy right next to me, poked me, qwerked a eyebrow, and asked, "Trowa?" I nodded, looking at him curiously, he pointed to his own chest, "Franz." To the other boy who looked like him, "Mueller." And to the girl, "Gretan." I gave a small nod to them all, letting them know that I heard and understood. Zechs spoke to them then, in a low voice, for quite a while, but they just nodded for the most part in return, and soon silence fell. I could think of no escape route.

Only a little while later, it could have been no later than noon, our group of ten was rounded up by the guards and lead the way all the other gangs had gone. I'm not sure I've mentioned it, but it was brutally hot, and more humid than I had felt yet, but blessedly there was a layer of cloud across the face of the sky, so the blasting sun didn't get to torment us for the first time in days.

As we were kicked and prodded to get up, two in my gang, farther along than Zechs on the chain, didn't get up. One didn't even attempt to, but the other sort of twitched and whimpered a bit as he was struck with a guard's lash, but he never really moved. The steward guard, the one with all the keys was called over as I stood swaying, desperate to keep my balance. It still amazes me how fast you can reach such a bad condition if you don't treat your body properly, no matter whether your brain is alert that day or not. The girl who hadn't even moved turned out to be dead already, and the steward opened her chain, and they dragged her to the other side of the pen and dropped, left to decay in the open. I would have wretched if I had anything to heave up. The second, the twitching one who was a boy my age, had his chain removed as well, and as we were shoved into a shuffling walk, he looked up at me, wide terrified eyes begging with me to help him. I turned my head to keep contact with him as long as I could, then as I, and dozens of others watched, a guard neglectantly reached down and drove his dagger through the kid's throat. He watched me, as he died. His eyes never left mine. Forever. I could feel my heart beat in my temples.

Zechs hurled his body against the restraints, howling in fury. I didn't know what he said in his language, but I was too busy staring into the glazing eyes of the victim, because don't doubt it for a minute, he was a victim, to even really react as I was wrenched off my feet by the chain around my ankles. Blood had splattered the guard's hand and he smirked into Zechs' furious face as he wiped it off onto the boy's ragged tunic, then he turned away and with his friends, he laughed, pretending to wipe more gore on him.

Any coherent thoughts I had that morning melted away; everything became a bit dreamlike and distant as we were heaved to our feet and hustled along. I cranked my head as far around as it would go, watching to light leave the boy's eyes, almost as if I could see his soul departing out the rent in his jugular. We would all be just like him, that's what a voice in the back of my head screamed. We were going to die! Dead. We'd all be dead!

Dead. Dead. Dead. It beat in time with my pulse. With my own blood, it was like a deep far away thunder in the background.

Dead. Dead. Dead. All of us were walking corpses; it was only a matter of time until we died too. Step, step, right foot, left foot, careful not to trip. Forever, but tears had slid out of his eyes at the end. Clank. Clank. The chains kept the rhythm in my head.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

We were in a beautiful glade, a river babbling over rocks in the center, a dusty road, the one we walked, lead to a deep pond. Obviously the masters didn't want to show prospective buyers mercandise that was smelly, exhasted, sweat and filth smeared. We splashed in it, the water sweaping away a wealth of little ickies, but I didn't rouse out of my stuper. We staggered back out, our bodies cleaner and out bellies sloshing full of the dreadful water.

But I was too far gone to care. We were all dead anyway. Dead. Dead. Dead.

The short trek from there to the market seemed to take forever, and we were almost dry in the heat before we got there.

We entered a beautiful outdoor theatre, with the seats rising before us, over half full of people. Trees shaded the entire area, low plants grew around the stage and up into the seating area. Didn't they know? Didn't they care? Children were dieing here, because of them, because they were willing to come and buy us. We, the living dead.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

Moisture dripped from the leaves, and from my hair, and I cringed, because all I could remember was the sound of that boy trying to breathe with his torn neck. It was the beat of my heart, the sound of my breathing. It was like a drum in my ears. I would never see my family again. I would never see Duo again, or Quatre, who I had never even gotten to know. I wanted these rich people, these wealthy comfortable, heartless bastards to know what I was feeling what I was to be me. Or any of these children. I wanted them to know terror, and pain, hunger and thirst, but most of all I wanted to show them death.

Dead. Dead, dead, deaddeaddead! My heart beat seemed to peak. To fill me.

I stared at the trees around me, they were swaying gently. Beautiful, peaceful, but I didn't want that, I wanted them all to know our pain. Everyone in that market to understand what horror inhabited our world. The trees began swaying harder, groaning in the wind that my dazed mind didn't realize wasn't there. The auctioneer walked to the center of the stage as the first of my gang as brought forward to be sold. How could they not see our misery? How could they not care? I wanted free, I wanted to go home. The little plants in the stands shriveled, withering. It was unbearably hot in the pit of the theater. They, those people up there should burn too. They should know how this grief felt.

Anger swept me. They needed to know. They must know what they were doing was wrong. They needed to learn!

Then the stage was engulfed in flames. Screams echoed all through the place, women and children wailing, and men shouting. I yelled too. Terrified. To know that you will die is totally different than facing it. No one welcomes death.

But more than that, as if that isn't enough, from outside of me there came fear. Confusion. Pain. My ears ached with another cry, one not my own, one in my head and I couldn't help it, my yell grew shriller, shrieking my agony to the world. My brain felt torn apart, fire everywhere and a pain not my own pounding at me, begging me to help, to save, to make it stop.

Then they were gone. Dead. Just like the unknown boy. Just like Duo would be. Just like I would be. Frozen like snow. Glacier cold, like on top of the mountains.

I was staring Zechs in the eyes, both of us wide eyed, and in pain.

Then world went dark.

**Tbc.**

_Now that I've fixed that I'll soon have another chapter out. I hope soon anyway, my design is due in a week and I need to get it done too! Stupid Arch. Tech._

_Grr._

_Hope y'all don't mind the changes, but they were needed._


	6. Trowa 6

Disclaimer: The world is mine, but Gundam Wing is not. It is not mine at all, much as I might wish it is.

A.N.: I have learned my lesson. I will no longer say that I'll have a chapter done by a certain time. Since I spent all last week on only school eating and sleeping, I can't say when that will happen again. So. I'll do what I can. Hope people like how this is developing. Thanks. Oh, one other thing, I hope there aren't too many grammer mistakes, ut my bus is coming and I have to run. Enjoy reading. (I hope, hope, hope!)

**Woodcutter.**

Kasi-kun.

_Chapter 6 – Trowa._

Now, when you grew up around people with darker hair and darker eyes, and are having a nice dream where you are at home and nothing wrong has ever happened. Well, nothing more than squabbles with siblings, and a few minor bruises when you make your Papa angry, I can tell you that it is a very disconcerting thing to open your eyes and stare into pale blue eyes while your whole body aches. Though ache ready is then understatement of the century.

When I did come into awareness my inane thought count became hopelessly balanced in the stupid thoughts favor, and I promptly gave up counting. This time the though consisted of 'Blue, pretty.' How embarrassing. Forever, but it got worse, because my mouth betrayed me, and those two horrible words spilled from my lips.

Laughter followed. The blue eyes vanished from my sight, and slightly hysterical laughter rolled over me.

"He thinks he will be fine!" Zechs gasped out between howls, and I managed to twist my head so I could see who he was talking about. Then I realized that I wasn't in the slave pens, and I had no idea where I was.

"Where?"

"Response logged, a report will be made." I had never heard such a monotone voice. I'm good at making myself sound emotionless, but this voice was uncanny. Soft footfalls moved away from me on the other side from Zechs and a door opened then closed, all before I could manage to turn my head before I could see who it was.

Frustrated I heaved my head back around to my friend. "Where?" I demanded this time. Forever, but I was not amused.

"He is not sure, Trowa." I wished that the blonde would learn to say 'I', and 'me', hearing him saying 'he about himself was getting confusing. "It is a far place from the slave pens. We have traveled very far, but new owners kept him drugged. He is sorry he doesn't know more."

"Far? Are you sure?" My eyes by this time had taken in my surroundings. Walls made of a kind of huge blocks, and a couple guttering torches set in the wall. I lay on a stone bench of sorts, the only bit of comfort being a bit of moldy straw to break the cold of the stone; the typical dungeon, straight out of a story book. Amazing. Forever but I wished I was anywhere but there. Scratch that, anywhere but there and the slave pen; in other words, at home, in my mountains. How much longer would I have to run to get to them now?

My musing was interrupted by the opening of the heavy iron door of the cell. Into the dank room trudged a very strange looking set of old men. I would describe them to you but I hate them now, for what they did to us, especially for what they did to... but I get ahead of myself. I'm sorry, onward. I won't describe them to you, I will leave it to your imagination. I learned in the first few moments that they were in our cell, that these men were powerful sorcerers who experimented with magic. They were my new masters, they informed me, since they had saved me from death at the auction arena. Forever, but I was not impressed!

"Forever," I had heaved myself to a sitting position when I learned this information. "You burn me, kill who knows how many people in the process, drag me across who knows how much distance, and then expect me to be grateful? You're all mad! Insane. You would be thrown off the mountain if you lived in Timber country!" I was breathing heavily. Obviously whoever had healed my burns hadn't done a good job of restoring my vitality.

One of the old men, who had the biggest nose I'd ever seen, sniggered quietly. "You're wrong, child."

Zechs seemed to have vanished into the shadows, his knees were pulled up to his chest, his arms curled around them, his blue eyes were like saucers, filled with fear. I was too stupid to fear them yet. "What do you mean? You must have! And given me a bad healing, to boot."

More laughter came from different separate men, and behind one of them I caught a glimpse of a slender boy a bit shorter than me. His lack of shirt proclaimed him male, I couldn't see him well enough to know his age or anything else about him beyond that. "Listen, child. That fire was all yours. We had nothing to do with it, except we happened to be in the area when it was happening. You haven't needed healing because the fire didn't burn you in the first place."

I was stumped. Stopped in my tracks, in my mind Duo's voice rang 'Your eyes are doing that glowy thing again'. Is this what it meant? These men had to be lying to me. I couldn't call fire. They were lying. I opened my mouth to say so, when the old man who had spoken to me first, spoke again.

"Can you tell me what a night of power is?" I shook my head, and then realized that Big Nose was looking beyond me at Zechs. "Come forward, Lad, answer me."

Zechs looked mutinous, but crawled forward, almost as if he was being dragged. Forever but it looked weird. "Night's of power is the slang name used in tales for a night when waves of magic flow over the land. They are very rare. Babies conceived on such nights are usually extremely powerful and," He choked for a moment, sitting back on his heels glaring at the oldsters, then continued "and those babies are rarely considered of the same species are their parents."

"Thank you." The man standing in front of the shadowed boy gave Zechs a malevolent smile, and the blonde cringed back to the floor, his hand coming up to touch his throat and a small sliver necklace that I hadn't seen before. "Do you understand, Timber-ape?" He looked at me. Uneasy in the extreme now, I shook my head. What did that information have to do with me? "Blue-eyes. Tell the Timber-ape when the last night of power was. And when you are born."

Zechs shook. The necklace glimmered, then with a choked cry the blonde rasped, "The last night of power was on Yestme-ja-mas, he's two hundred and fifty seven years old."

Big Nose turned to me, "Yestme-ja-mas. Yestme, the equinox in the land that Blue–eyes comes from, it is six days before the equinox in your mountains. Ja-mas, means sixteen years ago."

I felt the blood drain from my face. Sixteen years ago? Sixteen years ago, thirteen days before the autumn equinox my mother had gone missing in an early storm. She had been lost for ten days, and nine months later I had been born. My father was her new husband when it happened and he, it is whispered, was beside himself frantic when she was gone. When she got back Mama remembered nothing, but the healers had proclaimed her clean, then when I was born the whispers returned. What had happened while she was gone? All my life I had done my best to ignore the stories.

The evil old man waved the boy behind him into the torches light, "This is Heero. He was conceived on, as Blue-eyes said, Yestme-ja-mas."

He was blue eyes, but a deep blue like the evening shy, not like Zechs' which were like the ice on mountain tops, his face was a blank mask, his hair thick enough to be unruly, and unwilling to stay where it was combed. He didn't even blink when Master Evil spoke about him. A chill raced up my spine, was he even human? Then was Zechs had said sank in, he was over two hundred years old. Yet, he only looked to be about twenty-two or twenty-three. I turned to stare at him. He grimaced, and then mouthed, 'Even he, with years of experience, does stupid things and he gets caught sometimes.' I flopped to my back, and stared at the shadows of the ceiling, two hundred and fifty some-odd years?

"So, I'm going to live forever?"

"Oh, no, just a very long time, child. Like us. We'll be one big happy family."

"You're all liars." Ever heard of denial? I had it. I know it seems as incredible to you reading this story, as it did to me then, but it was true. I was one of the children of the nights of Power. Just like the mask-faced Heero. The only question is, how did it happen? I didn't learn that for a while longer, it was when I found that out that I truly began believing that I would never again be only a simply human boy working for his family in the Timber stands.

I was crushed. I don't think that it's possible for anyone to take such massive changes in their life, especially ones that occurred so quickly, without some time to grieve, and sulk about it. Forever, but I got the time I needed in that horrible little cell, after Zechs was dragged out by Heero, and I was left alone to ponder for weeks.

Oh, and I learned to hate gruel. Ugh!

Tbc.


	7. Author's note

_Authors Note:_

Hi everyone. You know, I told myself I would never leave an author's note of any kind in place of a chapter, but now it seems that I'm going to need to.

This story, and any other on this account, if you have read them, will not be completed. I don't think that I can ever explain it so that anyone will understand, but I wanted to tell the people who are actually reading my story, confusing as it can get.

Myca, thanks soooooo much for your reviews. They were really helpful, and they kept me willing to come back to write more. I'm sorry that you'll never hear the end of this tale. I hope that you'll forgive me. If you ever feel like it, drop me an e-mail. I love to chat about almost anything.

Nikkler, sorry that my story got confusing. It wasn't supposed to be. Good luck with your writing. Never give up, okay?

Koriaena, thank you for your time, and your reviews. As I said above, sorry about this.

Ryoko21, I know I've never left you a review, but I've enjoyed your stories. Thought that I'd let you know that. If you read this.

Now, about the attempted explanation.

I am a Christian. I believed in Christ when I was 12. I realized then that God loved me so much that he sent his son to die on the cross to save me.

Now, more recently, I've been wondering why we exist in this world. And I've been realizing, that considering I believe that Christ came to die on the cross to save me and to make it possible for me, even though I do things that HE doesn't like, to go to Heaven, then shouldn't life be about trying to do what he would want?

It isn't really about right and wrong any more. It isn't so much about "Is this wrong?" It's more about "Will this make Him happy. Will this make me more like Him, will it cause him joy."

In my personal opinion, call me what ever you want, and agree or not, but in my opinion spending my time writing stories that help no one, are filled with depression and violence isn't something that He would want me to do.

Don't get me wrong. I'm NOT saying that writing stories is wrong, I'm not saying that at all, I'm just saying that I, personally, don't think that it's the best way to spend my time.

Myca, Nikkler, etc. I hope I haven't made you hate me, I'm not saying that story writing is wrong. That is why I'm not sure that this explanation is a very good one. But I hope that you guys'll keep writing.

Also, please don't ever think that this is a forced decision. My parents and those that I look up too, none of them have thought, or said, that there is anything wrong with the way I live my life now. It is my own personal conviction that drives me to do this. Nothing is too much to give up for my God, and me Savior.

Huggles. Good luck in whatever you do. And please don't hate me for this.

If anyone wants to comment about this, my e-mail address is , or just do the normal review. I'll leave my Fiction alerts on for a little while longer. I would welcome any comments or questions, as long as they are legit. E-mailing me to tell me I'm an utter moron doesn't count, and sorry to tell you, it's already been done.

Thanks for reading this to the end if you see this.

Kasi.


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